Gin is not just gin. There are multiple styles and hundreds of possible botanicals to build everything from very simple to very complex expressions. A variety of expressions on the home bar makes it possible to craft dozens of cocktails in different styles and to enjoy gin as a featured ingredient, a complementary spirit, or neat in a glass. While there are many fantastic expressions available today, these are the staples that should be considered for your home bar.
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Empress 1908 Gin
Empress Gin is a collaboration between Victoria Distillery and the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC. The blend of eight botanicals includes a black tea blend served at the hotel and butterfly pea blossom, from which comes the stunning indigo color of the gin. More than just a color additive, the pea blossom offers earthy and floral notes that help balance out the grapefruit and juniper.
As part of your bar, Empress is like an alcoholic cheat code for making beautiful cocktails. The pea blossom is indigo in the bottle, but when combined with other ingredients in the glass, the color ranges from cobalt and azure to fuschia and magenta.
Empress works best as a mixing gin, not a sipping gin. It pairs well in the glass with citrus, herbal and floral flavors — think gin sour or elderflower spritz.
Gray Whale Gin
Gray Whale Gin checks several boxes in your home bar: gluten-free, locally grown or foraged ingredients, some of the proceeds donated to charity, and a high-quality New World-style gin. A quick note about the first: spirits are gluten-free after distillation, no matter the grain base.
The process removes any gluten, but some spirits can contain gluten if ingredients — like flavoring — are added after distillation. In spite of that, many people will still ask for gluten-free alcohol, so it’s good to have one branded as such in your bar.
Gray Whale is juniper forward, especially for a New World style, but the addition of mint, fir, and lime to the vapor basket gives it high-toned aromatics and a noticeably citrusy subtext. Because the ingredients don’t get too muddled allowing you to pick out specific tasting notes, Gray Whale is an excellent selection for sipping on ice or mixing in a gin and tonic.
Junipero Gin
Junipero was a genuine pioneer in American gin-making. Before craft spirits were everywhere, there was a dark period called the 1990s. Junipero emerged in 1996, a blend of 12 botanicals made in a copper pot still in the London Dry style. Typically, a recipe built with so many botanicals would be New World, but the ingredient blend lends itself more to London Dry’s palate, especially the use of bitter botanicals like angelica, bitter orange peel, and orris root.
On your bar, Junipero works as a very traditional juniper-forward gin. It’s perfect in a gin and tonic, Negroni, Last Word, and any other classic gin cocktail. As for sipping, Junipero works for people who love juniper and traditional gin; for everyone else, it’ll be for mixing.
(Photo: Allison Webber Photography)
In Closing
Adding anything to your back bar should be done intentionally. It’s easy to buy more than you need — looking at you, gadget nerds — so choosing spirits with intentionality means they make sense for your palate or your sense of adventure. These staples will greatly expand your cocktail options and provide enough variety to experiment in new and delicious ways.
